Democrat Charlie Crist, a former Republican governor of Florida, left, and Florida Republican Gov. Rick Scott, right, prepare to leave after a gubernatorial debate at the Spanish-language network Telemundo 51, Friday, Oct. 10, 2014, in Miramar, Fla. This is the first of three debates before the November election.
Lynne Sladky
AP

Democrat Charlie Crist, a former Republican governor of Florida, left, and Florida Republican Gov. Rick Scott, right, prepare to leave after a gubernatorial debate at the Spanish-language network Telemundo 51, Friday, Oct. 10, 2014, in Miramar, Fla. This is the first of three debates before the November election.
Lynne Sladky
AP

In a series of tense exchanges, the two leading candidates for governor zinged each other early and often in their first televised debate Friday, on Spanish-language Telemundo, and repeated the same message: The other guy is worse than me.

From beginning to end, the governor and former governor said more about each other and less about what each would specifically do if given four more years in the governor’s office. Both candidates misled at times. Outside, Libertarian Adrian Wyllie protested he was shut out of the debate.

Clear differences emerged: Medicaid expansion, raising the minimum wage, the Cuba embargo, medical marijuana or the role of a governor in creating jobs.

Polls show a virtually tied race, with Crist gaining a little more momentum in recent days. A high percentage of voters see both men in an unfavorable light.

“Why do you think that voters have that negative impression of you two?” moderator Marilys Llanos, a WSCV-Telemundo 51 political reporter, asked Crist.

Crist blamed Scott.

“It’s unfortunate,” Crist said. “Sadly, my opponent began a barrage of advertising in March of this year, almost all of it negative, and that’s unfortunate.”

Scott, asked the same question, didn’t initially answer it and instead discussed the jobs created since he assumed office in 2011. Llanos pressed Scott for an answer — the first of three times the moderators asked him to respond directly.

“My opponent is a mudslinger. And that’s what he does,” Scott said, pointing out that Crist, when he was a Republican, had bashed Democrats such as former President Bill Clinton.

In his response, Crist said Floridians “deserve to hear what we want to do in a positive way.” Crist, who seldom spoke in positive terms after that, then talked about raising the state’s $7.93 hourly minimum wage. The issue is potentially potent. Polls indicate it’s popular with the Florida electorate. A Latino Decisions survey of Florida Hispanic voters released Thursday said they back it by an even greater degree, 64-15.

Scott pointed to a Congressional Budget Office report that indicated a minimum-wage boost could be a job killer. Scott, who has recently avoided commenting on the issue, was pressed for a straight answer.

“I don’t support losing those jobs, I don’t support raising the minimum wage and losing those jobs,” Scott said. “I want more jobs and better-paying jobs.”

Crist jumped at highlighting the issue, making sure that the Spanish-speaking Telemundo audience would get the message: “This is a clear distinction between the two of us.”

Scott followed by pointing to job losses under Crist: “Charlie should be known as the zero wage governor, all right? 832,000 people had a job the day Charlie took office. The day he left office, they made zero wages.”

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“I was not personally responsible for the global economic meltdown,” Crist said. “You’re not responsible for the national economic recovery. The people are.”

If elected governor, Crist said, he would expand Medicaid, the health-insurance program for low-income people. If need be, he said, he would take executive action if the Legislature failed to act — something that would likely get him sued. Medicaid expansion is also popular with Hispanics, who are among the most eligible for the insurance in Florida.

“Rick Scott announced that he thought expanding Medicaid might be okay. Then he heard from the Tea Party base and he kind of crawled back in and wouldn’t talk about it anymore,” Crist said. “He talks about people who talk about things and don’t do anything.”

Scott said Crist was the one who was all talk.

“First off, Charlie had the opportunity to do Medicaid expansion when he was governor,” Scott said. “Obamacare passed. He didn’t. He sat on his hands.”

Scott’s statement glossed over the history of Medicaid expansion. It was supposed to happen automatically by January 2014 under Obamacare, which passed March 23, 2010 – right in the middle of the last legislative session Crist presided over as governor. At that time, Crist was a Republican U.S. Senate candidate who opposed Obamacare. And he didn’t ask the Legislature to instantly expand Medicaid eligibility. Two years later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Medicaid expansion was optional.

Scott initially opposed expansion. Then he supported it. Then he backed off it. Scott also signed legislation that kept insurance regulators from temporarily reviewing Obamacare health-insurance rates. And he signed other pro-industry legislation concerning property insurance.

But Crist falsely claimed Scott “actually signed a bill this year that says the office of insurance regulation can’t regulate insurance.” Crist, however, accurately noted that property-insurance rates were lower on his watch than Scott’s.

Crist claimed people are paying more in “Rick Taxes” now through their utility bills as well. But Scott pushed back by citing statistics that, he said, showed rates have fallen. Scott also pointed out that Florida’s Public Service Commission, which oversees utilities, has been stocked with Crist appointees.

That portion of the debate began with a discussion about man-made climate change. Crist said he believe in it; Scott didn’t give his position and instead talked about environmental spending and policy.

The two differed on lifting the Cuba embargo. Scott said it would empower the “terrorist” government on the communist island. Crist said it hadn’t worked and that it was the “definition of insanity.”

Both candidates faulted the other for cutting school money. Scott repeatedly mentioned Crist had not just raised taxes $2.2 billion but had also signed legislation boosting higher-education tuition rates. Scott stopped — but didn’t reverse outright — those tuition increases when he signed legislation that gave in-state higher-education tuition rates to so-called “dreamers” — undocumented immigrants who came to or remain in this country illegally.

But when it came to another dreamer issue, about driver’s licenses, Scott got his facts wrong.

The issue revolved around Scott’s 2013 veto of a dreamer driver’s license bill that unanimously passed the Senate and sailed through the House with only one No vote on the floor. Scott suggested that the bill did nothing more for dreamers because “they had the same option to get their driver’s license as they do today.” That’s not true. The bill, HB235, added a specific provision that allowed people to get driver’s licenses if they presented “A notice of the approval of an application for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status issued by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.”

Scott’s veto message said dreamers could still get a driver’s license — but only if they had a work permit. That can take extra time and money, as much as $380.

Crist, too, tried to spin when asked about child deaths at the Department of Children and Families.

“We didn’t cut funding,” Crist said. “We were facing a global economic meltdown. We had to deal with tough issues during a tough time.”

But Crist and the Legislature did reduce spending at the agency. So did Scott at one point.

A Miami Herald investigation showed that children in DCF care died under both governors. More of the reported deaths happened under Crist; but Scott’s administration changed reporting techniques and slow-walked Herald public-records requests, clouding the picture on his watch.

Asked about a proposed constitutional amendment calling for medical marijuana, Crist said he supported it. Scott, who pointed out he signed a limited medical-marijuana bill, said he was opposed.

“I’ve watched family members deal with drug abuse,” Scott said. “So it scares the living daylights out of me.”

On the subject of another constitutional amendment, a 2008 voter-approved law banning gay marriage, Scott wouldn’t say whether same-sex people shouldn’t be allowed to get married.

Asked if voters, instead of the courts, should re-decide the issue, Scott wouldn’t say. He did say, however, that he supports traditional marriage and pointed out that Crist “led” the charge for the ban. Crist didn’t do that. But Crist supported the gay-marriage prohibition; now he opposes it.

Asked if voters should decide the issue again, Crist said: “The court is going to decide it. I think the governor and I agree on that point.”

The debate was taped at Telemundo 51 studios in Miramar, Fla., and viewers will be able to watch the Spanish-language debate on Friday night on Telemundo 51, beginning at 7 p.m.. Other Telemundo stations that will air the debate in Spanish include, Fort Myers (WWDT), Orlando (WTMO) and Tampa (WRMD), according to network officials.

Viewers can also watch the debate online in Spanish at 7 p.m. on wwww.Telemundo51.com. For a live simulcast of tonight's debate in English, viewers can tune into www.NBC6.com at 7 p.m.

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